er this 100 page manual you guys seem to like so much. There is only one 100 page manual right? Because the one I have sucks. I don't know what you guys are on about. The reason for a 60 page manual may be because the collectors one comes with a separate recognition manual right? My 100 page manual has about 27 pages of pictures of subs and ships. Is there another better 100 page manual I don't know about?

I've completely disregarded the SH4 manual as I think most people have. You know you're in trouble when you can read a manual from cover to cover whilst drinking one cup of coffee.

Simulations are a lot less prolific than they used to be, and that's hardly surprising when most of them ship without adequate instructions these days, it's hardly a great incentive to get into the genre. For most people who frequent Subsim, that's not too much of a problem, since I suspect many of us have shelves groaning under the weight of books on the subject, and can rely on technical data from other sources for info.

Having said that, the marketing for SH4 seemed to be attempting to entice more casual players, and I can only imagine any of this type of buyer's frustration at attempting to play SH4 with the paltry effort of a manual which comes with it, if that's their only source of info. Well, only source other than the map which comes with the SH4 European edition I bought, and frankly that's not much use since it indicates many locations which aren't even modeled in the simulation. There isn't even an extended manual as a pdf version in the SH4 folder of my installation, merely a quickly slung on pdf identical to the 60 page printed 'manual' in the box - so quickly slung on in fact, that it is the actual artwork pdf, still with the printer's crop marks on it, which is just goddam lazy.

Joking aside, as someone did on this thread, it does actually mention Subsim.com on the box for SH4 and one can only hope that buyers who are new to the world of sub simulations find their way here for help. But it's a pretty poor way to treat customers, particularly in view of the fact that the product also has problems in its currently released version.

I've just counted the number of pages in the Silent Service 2 manual - 128 of them. And that's for a 17 year-old game on exactly the same subject matter, a game that came on floppy disks without half the content which SH4 has.

I remember the Sim City 2000 or 3000 manual being absoultily huge... same with the Civilization 3 manual, Kinda wish games had big manuals like that, there good to read in bed. :yep:

Way, way back... before I was driving, the most memorable thing about buying a new game was the bus-journey home, where I'd devour as much of the manual content as possible, so I was already well-versed before I'd even installed the game (or inserted the first floppy ;)). These days, if I were to do the same thing, I'd be lucky to get as far as the next bus-stop before the last page, assuming you even get a manual and not just a PDF on the disk...

Thing is though, and I'm not excusing that pathetic excuse we got with SH4; big, thick manuals were discontinued due to rising costs of printing and paper-wastage, and when you consider the sheer quantity of games these days, and frequency with which they're produced (and discarded in favour of "The next bestest thing®"), it's really no surprise that we get little more than a pamphlet now. Also, as packaging shrunk to DVD-size boxes that suppliers/publishers can squeeze more of into deliveries, and hence, retailers get more onto shelves, the end-result is what we see today. Sad (for us), but such is progress...

Printing costs is no reason for not having a decent manual. They can just put a PDF/word document on disk and just use a printed quickstart kind of manual.

Ilpalazzo: May be right about there being 2 different 100+ page manuals. Someone said on page 100 of their manual it was referencing the chrono and timing of contacts function.

Jungman: I've got the same version as you. Manual isn't worth a damn and the recog manual was a joke. In game shots of the ships at about a 20deg angle front and 45deg looking down. When are you going to be looking down at a ship through your scope, and don't anyone say after you've sunk it. :smug:

I didn't say it was, and in fact I specifically pointed out that it was no excuse for SH4's pathetic re-hash of the SH3 manual, which in itself was lacking. It's painfully obvious that the manual received nothing more than cursory attention, and a lot of prior-knowledge of the SH series was taken for granted. Not the best way to enlist new "recruits".

I was merely recalling halcyon days, before the world realised we were annihilating rainforests for the sake of a piece of transient technological entertainment that could become landfill within a year or two. That, and the logistical reasons for the miniturisation of game-packaging. I still have maybe 10 (at most) games that I bought 10 or more years ago, complete with their doorstep-manuals that provide enough reading material to justify the cost of the game alone, but the other (probably 100's) games have been discarded to re-sale or succumbed to the ravages of time, children or pets ;), and some of them had the same huge manuals, all now become waste. It would be great if we still got manuals like that, but with very few exceptions, notably complex applications, those days are gone.

SH IV Manual
 

:damn: You would think if they wanted to save on print costs UBI would put out a complete manual in pdf format on their game support web-site!!!!!!!

Are people suddenly incapable of interpreting plain English these days??? ...or do they only read three words into a post before hitting the "reply" button?

...you'll excuse me if I refrain from repeating myself, again.

My comment about putting PDF manuals on disk to save print costs wasn't directed at your comment either. It was a general comment made towards developers.

Maybe take some of your own advice and read a post properly before going all defensive.

Fair enough... you didn't quote or name me directly, but your post did come immediately after mine, and I didn't "go all defensive" at you, I simply responded to what I (not unreasonably) thought to be a counterpoint to mine. Granted, my reply to Teddals was kinda abrasive, but since I'd made my stance pretty much crystal clear by then, his reply seemed to have completely ignored my post directly before his.

Anyway, I guess we're all agreed on one thing; The manual is crap. :up: